Personal Content Server

[mdb139]

Hi all,

To anyone using eReader or Stanza on an iPhone/iPod Touch, I've written a small web server application to automatically scan your eBook library and build a catalog for use within the aforementioned programs, enabling you to easily download your books to your device. I'm looking for volunteers to help test.

* Application is and always will be free
* Requires Windows/Microsoft.Net 2.0 Framework (free)
* Small footprint (~100k)
* Point it at a folder, and it will index your library, assuming:

Folder\File.pdb = Last Name, First Name\Title of Book.pdb

* Conduct simple search (title/author) from your device.

Anyone interested can reach me via private message.

[bthoven]

Hi,

I'm using eReader on my iPhone. I hate to upload my non-drmed ebook (pdb) to eReader.com personal content server first before I can download to my iphone.

I'm not sure your application will allow me to download such ebook easily via wifi from my home PC to my iPhone, both located in my house?

My PC is WinxpSP3 with builtin wifi which is now connected to my wifi adsl/router at home.

[bthoven]

Hi Matt,

Just to say thanks here again after receiving your setup file. I can now download my eREader (pdb) ebooks directly from my PC to my eReader app on my iPhone, via home wifi.

You've made my dream come true. It was very easy to setup.

[jayman]

Can you post that program for the ereader for iphone?

[mdb139]

[Edit: Please download server2.zip below]

Unzip the contents to a folder of your choice. Note that you’ll need to make sure you allow it to create the “iui” folder.

Edit LibraryServer.config (this is a text file) and update line 6 to point to your library:

<Item name=”libraryRoot” value=”c:\path to your library” />

You can change the port on line 5 if desired, but that shouldn’t be necessary.

Double click on BookIndexer.exe. That will start the server. It will tell you the URL you would need to enter in eReader or Safari to view your library. On my PC, it looks like this: http://192.168.1.100:9033 . You can browse the URL from your PC as well, but it won’t really be formatted correctly.

Note that the server assumes that your library is organized like this:

Folder: Library Root
Folder: Author (Last Name, First Name)
Title of Book.pdb

So on my setup:

C:\xfers
C:\xfers\Silva, Daniel
C:\xfers\Silva, Daniel\Prince of Fire.pdb


Good luck. Let me know if you have any questions.

[mdb139]

Sorry, I should have commented -- I think this currently only works with eReader 2.0 -- since eReader now requires a special "protocol" (and that's the reader I use) I broke compatibility with Stanza. If there's interest I can make this configurable (or support both).

[mizumo]

Thanks for the file but I can't get it to work with the new protocol. It's be great if you can get it to work with new ereader.
TIA

[mdb139]

Updated: server2.zip

I added a protocol parameter in LibraryServer.config which allows you to configure the content server to use either either ereader:// (works with eReader 2.x) or http:// (works with Stanza and old versions of eReader).

Tested on eReader 2.1.1 and Stanza 2.

Mizumo -- if you describe the difficulty you're having I can try to help diagnose.

[mizumo]

Hi Matt, I've made progress I got the server working on my lap top. It open up with a dos window showing all the files in the folder and end with listening to my http address.

I've enter the address in ereader 'go to another site' page. It open safari but safari can't open page because the server cannot be found. this is what i've enter ereader://192.168.0.1:9033.
TIA

[mdb139]

Sorry, I see the confusion.

In LibraryServer.config, specify "ereader" for the "protocol" setting (this is how it is set by default).

Open ereader, add books, and go to another site as you did. The address will be http://192.168.0.1:9033 in your case. This will launch Safari and the site should come up.

Where the "ereader://" protocol specified in LibraryServer.config comes into play is for the links to your books. The ereader:// protocol tells the iPod/iPhone to (re)launch eReader to download the book. You won't have to do anything special here, just navigate the site to the book you want to download and click.

For those using Stanza, you would specify "http" in the protocol setting in LibraryServer.config. In either case, this tells the server as it builds the HTML page that is browsed how to code the links to your books.

Let me know if this isn't clear.

[mizumo]

I got safari searching for a minute or so but it cannot open page because the server stopped responding.
Thanks

I change the protocol to http and try it with stanza and it give me Catalog Error timed out. I've turn off zonealarm just incase because of it.

I got Calibre to work with stanza yesterday and I've notice the ip address of calibre server and this server are different. I changed to the calibre ip address and it work! I'm able to see all files in my folder now. When i'm down load a book, ereader open but it give me a download failed time out.

[mdb139]

Sounds like you maybe have multiple IP addresses on the computer you're running off of, and the server is binding to the wrong one... I can work on making it so that you can specify the IP address this weekend, but in the mean time you might try disabling all but one of your IP addresses to confirm that's the issue.

[LeapinLar]

mdb139,

Thank you so much for this little software. I was trying to make calibre do this, but had no luck. Your little server did the trick. The only thing I would have liked was to be able to custom set the directory structure so I could use my default calibre directory structure, which is:

folder: library root
folder: author (first last)
folder: book name
title of book.pdb

Thank you again

[mdb139]

This version has been updated to better support Calibre libraries.

In LibraryServer.config, use the "folderStructure" item to enable/disable this feature:

<Item name="folderStructure" value="Calibre" />

A value of "Calibre" will use that structure, any other value will use the default behavior.

[LeapinLar]

Thank you so much!

The Calibre folder structure works great.